


Abridge

by camichats



Series: Dictionary Prompts [64]
Category: Marvel
Genre: Breaking Up & Making Up, Denial of Feelings, Established Relationship, Love Confessions, M/M, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2020-05-15 02:33:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19286317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats
Summary: Johnny and Tony are in love, but Johnny doesn't quite realize that.





	Abridge

****"Hey Tony is that you?" Sam asked, pointing at a picture that popped up on the television screen. It was a preview for the upcoming gossip that passed for news these days, a shady snapshot of Tony and Johnny Storm.

Tony looked up to see what he was referring to. "Yeah."

"Who's that with you?" he asked, since no one on the news team recognized Johnny. It didn't help that he wasn't facing the camera head on. If Tony remembered correctly, Johnny hadn't been wearing a helmet and Tony was calling him an idiot.

The tv put that picture next to one of Steve with the caption 'Iron Man and Captain America slumming it? Possible secret romance!'. Tony snorted, looking back towards his tablet. "Steve, apparently."

"That's not Steve," Sam said, rolling his eyes.

Tony hummed absently, not listening to him anymore.

Sam rolled his eyes again and changed the channel.

* * *

Johnny threw back five shots in a row. True to his word, he was still standing when the other guy fell flat on his ass.

Tony was snickering the entire time and trying to hide it. He knew from his party days how this was going to end, and he was pretty sure Johnny knew it too. At least Tony hoped he knew, because otherwise this was about to get _very_ unpleasant.

They made it outside safely, but when Johnny turned to head for the car, Tony grabbed his arm, shaking his head. "No way."

"C'mon, I thought we were going back to your's." He wrapped his arms around Tony and reached down to grab his ass. He bit at Tony's neck, sucking a mark into the skin.

"You're about to get sick, and you're not doing that in my car."

"I'm not gonna get sick," he said defensively.

"Uh-huh, sure champ."

"I'm _not_."

They started walking, Johnny leaning heavily on his side, and they only made it past three buildings before Johnny heaved into a trashcan. Tony rubbed his back and made sure that he didn't get any shit on his jacket-- he was pretty sure Johnny loved that jacket more than life itself.

* * *

"That's a hickey," Natasha said, craning her neck to get a better look at the blotchy mark on Tony's skin.

"Yeah," Tony said. He raised his hand to rub at it automatically.

"Who's it from? I didn't even know you were dating someone."

He shrugged. "Not sure I would call it dating. I called him my boyfriend the other day and he told me that he wanted to 'keep it casual', whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean."

Natasha made a sympathetic face. "How old is he?"

"Legal."

"Well, yes. If he's over thirty, I would say he has commitment issues and he needs to rethink a few things about his life."

"And if he's younger?"

"Then I'd say he probably just wants to fuck around and you should think about whether or not that's something you want. Which is he?"

Tony wasn't listening anymore though. By the time she'd asked, he was on the other side of the kitchen, making a new pot of coffee. She gave an exaggerated huff and dropped it. Chances were, she'd hear how it ended.

* * *

"Johnny, come on. We text all the time, and we go on dates every two days. That sounds like we're dating to me."

"Yeah," Johnny said, rubbing his hand against his head uncomfortably, "but you know that's not what I mean by it, Tony. I told you that, and you said you were okay with it."

"Did I? Because I remember rolling my eyes."

"You did look at me like I was stupid," he agreed.

"That's because you're being stupid."

"Hey," Johnny protested.

"Did you seriously think I'd want to do this for months if it wasn't going to lead anywhere? I'm past the age where just sex is fun. If that's all you want, fine, but it's not going to be with me."

Johnny gave Tony a sharp smile that was all teeth and no humor. "Fine." He pushed himself back from the table and headed for the door, grabbing his leather jacket off the back of the chair as he passed. "See you around."

"No you won't."

He paused in shoving his feet into his shoes. "Yeah I guess I won't. Bye Tony. It was fun."

The door closed, and Tony dropped his head into his hands miserably. Tony Stark Luck aka fall in love with the exactly wrong person. It was a tried and true fact of his life, no matter what he did. _Woo-hoo_ , he thought flatly. He was getting too old for this shit.

* * *

Natasha took one look at Tony, then pushed her bowl of ice cream over to him in offering.

"Thanks," he muttered, taking a bite.

"Rough day?"

He shrugged.

"If you haven't had a bad day, I'm taking my ice cream back," she warned.

Tony took one more bite, then pushed the bowl back to her. "Hasn't been the best. I'll go work on that comm update for you."

* * *

Sue looked at her brother, then turned away. Then she sighed and turned back. "Okay what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," he lied.

She didn't say anything, just waited. Give Johnny silence for long enough, and he would break. Sure enough, a few minutes later he started talking.

"How did you know when you were in love with Reed? Like, you guys were together, then you broke up for a while, but you've been fine ever since."

"Johnny, are you in love with someone? I never thought I'd see the day," she mused.

He glared at her.

"Fine, fine." Sue leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest while she thought. "I guess one day I realized that I didn't want to spend my life without him. Like when I went off to get my doctorate and you were spending time in California, it kind of killed me. I realized that I didn't want to live my life without you, and after Reed and I got back together... I guess I thought the same thing."

"Hmm." Johnny was looking morosely at the floor, thinking. "So that's it? Just- you don't want to live without him?"

"I'm pretty sure that's how most people find out they're in love; it's not that weird."

"But that's so easy."

"Did you want a cryptic answer?"

"Well no offense Sue but that's kinda what I was expecting."

"Fine," Sue said, rolling her eyes. "Look deep in your heart and think about them and you'll know. Better?"

"Don't go into poetry, you'd starve."

"Oh for fuck's sake Johnny. Either tell the woman you're in love with her or get out."

"Man," he corrected.

"What?"

"It's a guy."

"Are you bi, then?"

Johnny shrugged. "I thought that would get more of a reaction, you know."

"Gasp, oh goodness, oh my," she said flatly. "Tell the man you love him, or get out."

"It's Tony Stark."

"WHAT?" Sue startled, looking at him with wide eyes. She'd knocked over her cup of water, but she didn't even notice. "Tony _Stark_? As in Iron Man?"

"That's the reaction I was hoping for," he said with a shit-eating grin.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Jonathan Lowell Storm you had better be serious."

"Middle naming me? Really Sue?"

Her eyes narrowed to slits. It made her look half asleep, but also like she would kick his ass to the moon if he didn't tell her what she wanted to hear.

"Yeah it's the Tony Stark."

"How did I not hear about this? You can't keep your mouth shut about _anything_ , but when it's something cool you clam up?"

"I thought Reed hated Stark Industries."

"Reed's jealous, and from what I've heard, he and Tony Stark don't get along. Can I meet him?"

"Technically we're broken up."

She threw a stack of papers at him. They fluttered to the floor long before getting in range of hitting him, but it made her feel better all the same. "Go make up. I want his opinion on these radiation scans, and since Reed and I got married, I'm pretty sure he ignores anything that has the last name 'Richards' attached."

"I thought Banner was the radiation expert of the team."

"He is, but he's also off world right now. Originally I was going to wait until he got back, but this would be much faster."

"Using my relationship to get your research expedited... that's villain stuff, Suze. You sure you're feeling okay?"

"Why are you still here? Wait, Johnny, are you actually worried?" When he didn't immediately answer, she said, "Oh my god you _are_ worried." There was a chance then, where she could have done the sympathetic thing and told him that there was nothing to worry about, that she was certain everything would work out for the best. Instead, she threw her head back, cackling. "This is priceless."

"Whoever said women are sympathetic has never met you."

"If you don't want to be mocked, you shouldn't have come to me. What's the problem in your relationship anyways? If it was just being in love, you wouldn't look like someone scratched your favorite bike."

"There's no problem."

"Oh Johnny," she sighed. "You panicked, didn't you."

"No," he lied.

"See, because I'm nice, I'm gonna warn you right now. You can either leave to go fix this, or you can stick around while I mock you some more. Which is it going to be?"

"You're a lot meaner than you used to be," he noted, walking towards the door. She was also a lot happier than she used to be, so the trade off was pretty good. Considering that her 'nicer' days were actually just her being a pushover, he wasn't actually complaining.

"Let me know how it goes!"

He raised a hand to let her know he heard but didn't say anything in return.

* * *

"Uhhh," Bucky said, frowning at the person who was standing in front of the tower and looking up towards the Avenger's floors. He looked suspiciously like Steve, but there was something about his bearing that screamed they weren't the same person. Sort of... over confident and self assured. It reminded him of Tony, actually. He was just going to keep walking. It wasn't his business, and sticking his nose where it didn't belong had gotten him kidnapped by a villain twice since leaving Hydra's control.

Steve glanced over when he entered the room. "Hey Buck. How was the dog park?"

"It was good. There's someone in front of the building that looks like you. It's kinda creepy."

"Really?"

Bucky nodded.

"Huh, that's weird. Do you know where the peanut butter is? I can't find it."

* * *

"Sir," Jarvis said, interrupting him from the latest Iron Man armor design.

"Yeah J?"

"Mister Storm is at the front desk asking for you. Should I tell them to let him in?"

Tony paused. Johnny was here? Did that mean... No. It was likely that Tony had forgotten a tie or something at his apartment and he was just returning it. "Yes. Direct him to the penthouse, I'll meet him there."

"Of course, sir."

Tony sighed and ran a hand through his hair. This was not going to be fun. He saved the plans and got to his feet, patting DUM-E's strut as he passed. "Try not to destroy anything while I'm gone buddy."

DUM-E gave a chirp that was probably supposed to be a promise that he would behave, but Tony knew better than to believe it. He got up to the penthouse and filled a glass with water, just so he'd have something to do with his hands.

The elevator doors opened, and Johnny stepped out, looking around. He'd never been to the Tower before since he insisted that they weren't dating, and therefore there was no reason for him to be in Tony's primary home where he could meet all his teammates. "Nice place," he said mildly.

"Is that why you're here? To compliment the furniture my decorator picked out?"

"No," Johnny said with a sigh. He scratched at the back of his head.

"Are you okay?" He'd never seen Johnny so... reserved.

"Sue tells me I'm an idiot, and since she knows me better than anyone, I guess I have to believe her."

"Okay?"

"I missed you," he admitted.

Tony's hand clenched tightly around his glass.

"I was being stupid when I said we should keep it casual. I've never wanted to keep someone around before." He gave a smile and a shrug. "Guess I made a mistake leaving the other day."

"And?"

Johnny heaved a put-upon sigh and walked closer. "And we should start dating like we should have been doing from the beginning. I'm sorry that I ran away from my feelings and you got hurt because of it. If it makes you feel better, I'm new to the whole 'being in love' thing."

"You're in love? With _me_?"

"Uhh shit I didn't mean to say that."

"No take-backsies," Tony said, pointing a finger at him. "You made your bed now you have to lie in it. Tell me more about how magnificent I am and how much you love me." Tony was grinning, and he laughed when Johnny rolled his eyes, stepping into his space and taking the glass of water from him.

"You're magnificent and I love you."

"That's just repeating what I said, it doesn't count."

"Give me time, I'm sure I'll think of something."


End file.
